


Sawmill's Mutt

by Jumpp



Category: Team Fortress 2
Genre: Dog - Freeform, Fluff, puppy, texas toast
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-11
Updated: 2015-10-11
Packaged: 2018-04-25 21:46:58
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,744
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4977709
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jumpp/pseuds/Jumpp
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In which Pyro finds a puppy on base and Pyro and Engie have some bonding time.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Sawmill's Mutt

 

 

 

Where Pyro found a puppy in the middle of nowhere, Engineer couldn’t figure out how. It wasn’t the oddest thing for Pyro to ever bring back while on a mission but it was the most inconvenient. Puppies required food and proper attention and all the things Pyro would probably forget about. And a vet, the mutt could really use a vet. With all the flooding happening in Sawmill, the thing was lucky to be alive. It was real sorry looking, soaked to the bone, not much thicker than a collection of toothpicks. Had hungry eyes and several rips and tears in it’s ears.

But that evening, when Pyro came to his workshop holding it to his chest, making incoherent pleads while giving what Engineer assumed to be puppy eyes behind the mask, the man had a hard time saying no.

Somehow he agreed to helping Pyro take care of the dog when he himself didn’t even like dogs. They were awful things to have running around in his workshops, peeing on sentries and knocking toolboxes over.

The first thing he did was grab one of the larger buckets in his workshop and fill it with water and a collection of soaps. That got most of the grime off, though it struck Dell as odd that the mutt didn’t even resist. It didn’t move much.

“S’not a good sign.” He said more to himself than to anyone.

“Hh knhhh.”

He ran his hands though the dog’s fur a couple more times, breaking up the mud clumps. The water got darker as the fur got lighter. Grey. It was a light grey dog, not an ugly one either. When it was dry it might even be cute.

Engineer lifted the thing from the bucket, feeling every rib even through his glove as he did so.

“There is part of a sandwich on my main desk, bring it here, would you?” He said to Pyro, who hung around fidgeting with their suit straps for something to do. At the same time he grabbed a (mostly clean)  oil rag from his back pocket to dry the little beast off.

Pyro brought back the sandwich and near shoved it in the dog’s muzzle. When it didn’t react immediately, Pyro made a distressed sound and shoved it in the puppy’s face more aggressively. They both whined.

“Come on partner, he’s little and scared,  ya gotta play nice-”

It bit Pyro’s glove with its short needle teeth. It must’ve broken the skin, because then Pyro howled and then they both were, giving Dell the start of one pounding headache.

“-Alright, let’s, let’s calm down and, and try again. You gotta be gentle. He’s nervous. I don’t move fast and close around you when you’re nervous, do I?”

“Nhh…”

“Exactly.” To demonstrate, Engineer took off his glove, let the puppy sniff his hands, and then carefully picked it up and set it in his lap. The thing, while perhaps not liking the new seating arrangement, didn’t fuss. Pyro watched intently, then did something Dell never thought even possible.

Pyro took of their gloves, revealing two slender hands. He couldn’t help but stare, taking in every detail and forgetting about the wet puppy in his lap. They were light brown, the fingernails had been mostly cut and chewed away, and here and there odd markings half blended into the skin. Burns, Engineer realized. Healed but scared. They were probably pretty bad at some point.

“Hnnghe?” The staring made Pyro nervous. Always had. Dell wasn’t supposed to do that. “Hh, Hh chhn phht thhm bhck hn hf yhh whnt-”

“No, forget about that Darlin’, just take this thing.” He tore his eyes away and gestured to the puppy in his lap. Pyro did take it, while trying to be gentle. Pyro really only could be so gentle.

The puppy let itself be taken and cradled with one arm to the Pyro’s torso, while one hand pulled that sandwich off the floor and held it near. Pyro was looking at deliberately anything but Engineer. They said nothing, but the shaking hands told Engineer everything.

With a sharp pang of guilt burrowing threw his gut, he realized that Pyro would not just ‘forget about that.’ He stared. Of course he had stared, that was the first time pyro took of anything- but, never the less, Dell was raised to be polite and Dell made himself apologize.

“You ain’t too upset, are ya? I’m awfully sorry, ‘ll find a way to make it up to ya."

Pyro nodded numbly, and snuck their right hand back into its glove. They had put down the puppy and sandwich to put on the other glove.

Pyro had nice hands. Engineer wished they didn’t hide them.

The awkward silence that overtook them both was too unsettling to let go on but too awkward to linger.

Then, when Dell turned his attention back to the puppy, he noticed it sluggishly chewing on the sandwich, going for the ham but not rejecting anything else. “ Well, lookit that.” It should be gobbling up the food, giving how hungry it looks, but this was good. A good sign.

He looked at it again. The fur was fluffing up, and now not even he could say it wasn’t cute. “Say, Smokey, there weren’t any litter mates with it? A mother?”

Pyro took to long to respond. “H dhn’t knhw. Ht whs dhrh.”

“We’ll go back and look in the morning, then.” The puppy chewed all it wanted, and only now did Dell pet it again. It liked that. He tried to put it in Pyro’s lap again but the firebug seemed to hardly notice and the puppy crawled out a few seconds later. 

The awkward silence tried to sneak in again, but this time Engineer wouldn’t let it. “Hey, Partner, why don’t we set ‘em up in a box for the night with some food, water and a blanket. We’ll see how he’s doing in the morning and judge what to do from there.”

“… Yhh, yhh shhd yuu’d mhhh ht hp hh mhh.”

It took him a moment to decipher that. _‘You said you’d make it up to me.’_ If he couldn’t prove Pyro was offended before he could now. That guilty feeling spread threw all over again. With a dry mouth, he answered “Yeah, suppose I did say that.”

“Thhn chn whh khhp ht?”

_‘Can we keep it?’_ Oh. Oh don’t make him have to do this. “He’s sick, ya know. If he ends up being too sick I don’t want you getting all upset-”

“Hh whhn’t.” They assured all to easily while picking up the puppy again.

“You are gonna forget to feed it-”

“Bhht yhh whhn’t.”

“You need to learn to be delicate with it and-”

“Hmm lhhrnhg hmm lhrnhnng.”

Pyro would probably never get over it if the puppy kicked it. And Pyro would regularly forget to feed it unless Dell was around. But hey, thats why Pyro said can we keep it, not I. “Yeah, yeah, hell, alright. If I said no you’d keep it anyway and hide it. better like this-”

He was interrupted with a high pitched inhuman squee and Pyro jumped and threw their hands up. The puppy, previously lethargic, burst to life at the sound and ran for cover.

“We need to put him away for the night. We can keep him in here, but lets find a box ‘n…” Pyro was already off. They returned with one of the many man-co crates, a couple clean looking oil rags, and an extra pair of Engineer’s overalls he had hanging on a hook. He wasn’t sure if he wanted that used as puppy bedding- but Pyro ignored any looks he tried to give and shoved all of that in the crate. The Puppy followed, and Dell could see how the Pyro picked up the dog real slow, real delicate. They were trying. That much was obvious.

Pyro then pushed the crate to the corner, above a heating vent, but instead of leaving they stared in the box.

Dell approached them, and looked in too. “He’s doin’ fine. Leave him be, alight Firebrand?”

“Bht chht.”

Engineer wasn’t sure whether to smile at that or roll his eyes. “Yeah, he’s adorable. But go on Boy, you better go get yourself some sleep and let the dog do the same.”

He expected Pyro to nod. Or maybe shrug and leave slowly. But Pyro didn’t. “Bhy?” They repeated softly. They shook their head. “Ghrl.”

Now, every once in a while Dell Conagher was known to be a little thickheaded. The dog was a male, he was pretty sure- he leaned in the crate and picked it up one more time to check- “No, Smokey, this is a male dod-”

Pyro interrupted and spoke clearer than Engineer had ever heard them speak. _“Girl.”_ Slowly, the kid used their thumb and pointed at themself.

Then, after looking Pyro up and down once, then twice, he got it. Dell Conagher was supposed to be a smart man, however this took him longer than he ever thought possible. He looked at those blank lenses and for the first time felt like the two of them were making real eye contact.

He always just thought of the Pyro as they. Pronouns were confusing, sure, so he slipped up a lot and used he, as did everyone else because everyone thought… Everyone thought that…

“Well, alright Miss,”  he cleared his throat. “Are we keeping that between you and me?”

Pyro nodded. “Yhh, mhh, hnd phhpy.”

“Alright then. go back to your room. I got a little bit of cleanin’ up to do around here, then I’ll be retiring too. Leave the puppy alone for the night, alright?”

It took a few seconds to agree but Pyro mumbled some sort of agreement.

“I mean it. Don’t pester him. I’ll probably lock the door to make sure…”

“ _Hkhyy,_ h ght ht.”

“Goodnight Darlin’.”

“G’nhght.” Swiftly and timidly, the pyro leaned over and pecked his cheek with the end of the mask, then she gave Engineer a tight hug around his middle. “Thhnks fhr thh phhpy.” She was off, skipping out of the workshop.

Dell looked at the grey runt of a dog in the crate, then rubbed at his cheek where the mask filter touched, and couldn’t help but think to himself how this turned into such an odd day. Not a bad day. Just odd.

 

And that was fine. 

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading. If any of you want to go yell at me on my tumblr, here it is. http://captainolddog.tumblr.com/
> 
> Have a wonderful day.


End file.
